You can also access other DXCC information in the ZS6EZ Rogues'
Gallery. There is a DXCC Honour Roll cumulative list, an Honour Roll list
going back to 1956, annual DXCC lists for South Africans since 1947, a list
of first achievers at different endorsement levels for each DXCC and a list
of 50 MHz DXCC holders world-wide. Finally, there is a breakdown of significant
developments in DXCC in South Africa over the past few years.

DXCC starts with an entry level of 100 entities on the DXCC list. Work
100 entities, obtain confirmations, submit them to ARRL and pay the
application fee. Most DXCC entities are countries, but there are a
few oddities such as islands isolated from the remainder of a country
or even international agencies that occupy single buildings. A prime
example is the Prince Edward Islands, including Marion Island. This
island group constitutes one of the most wanted DXCC entities, even
though it is part of South Africa. The reason, of course, is over
1000 km of open water between them and the rest of the country.

Achieving the basic DXCC award is relatively easy. Most determined
individuals can reach DXCC status relatively comfortably in a year.
In fact, most major contest stations work 100 countries on each of
several frequency bands in a major contest! However, the challenge
does not end there. Endorsements are offered for greater numbers of
entities. The leading stations in the world now approach 400 such
entities, including the 340 existant entities and another sixty or
so that have been deleted.

Stations that need less than 10 current entities confirmed are listed
in the DXCC Honour Roll. The Top of the Honour Roll contains all
stations that need no current entities. They have worked and confirmed
every single entity in the world. About 1000 stations world wide,
including four South Africans, have achieved this distinction.

One can also apply for a range of specialised DXCCs, including ones
for a single mode or a single band. There is also a Five Band DXCC
(5BDXCC) for confirming at least 100 current entities on each of the
five main HF bands (3,5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz). Once the 5BDXCC has
been earned, one can earn further band endorsements for other bands.
Single-band DXCCs have been earned on 12 different bands, from 1,8
to 440 MHz. Finally, there is the DXCC Challenge, consisting of the
combined score of current entities on the 10 bands from 1,8 to 50 MHz.
The leading stations have achieved over 3000 challenge points, or an
average of over 300 entities per band.

Some entities are almost impossible to miss. Italy, Germany and the USA
are some of these entities that have been confirmed by virtually all
DXCC participants. Others are far harder, and may not be workable at
all for years or even decades at a time. Such rare entities are either
politically unstable and therefore do not issue licences, or they are
inaccessible. An example of the former is North Korea, the most wanted
entity in the world. Only a few dozen DXCC participants have worked
North Korea on CW. An example of an inaccessible island is Bouvet,
a Norwegian island in the south Atlantic Ocean. There is no
resident population, and ships going there have to brave the Roaring
Forties as well as steep cliffs that make sea landings impossible.
An icebreaker with a helicopter does not come cheaply, so this
island has appeared only about once per decade.

It is because of this intermittent availability of a few entities
that longevity is a major asset in the DXCC chase. A score of 300
can be achieved in a year or two. However, getting onto the Honour
Roll generally takes decades. Getting to the Top of the HR takes
decades more.

All of these listings had one thing in common: They contained a current
score for each current member, but contained no information about past holders
who had become inactive, and there was never a way to determine when someone
had first entered the race.

The current Web lists also do not contain any information on deceased
members or stations that have not received endorsements since the DXCC
system was computerised (in the 1980s). Consequently, the Mixed and Phone
listings are nowhere near complete. The other awards are less affected, as
their introduction (starting with CW in 1979) did not predate the
computer system to the same extent.

I started collecting dates and certificate numbers for ZS members in the
early Eighties. These records were compiled from monthly QST listings,
personal discussions, industrial espionage and countless letters and phone
calls. Unfortunately, the records were by no means complete, but the list
nevertheless gradually became the most comprehensive record of South African
DXCC activity in existence.

Two major breakthroughs happened in 2011 and 2012. The first was that
several old DXCC lists started becoming available through the ARRL Web site.
The second was that an almost-complete set of QSTs fell into my lap,
going back to 1936. Suddenly, I had almost all the source documents at my
fingertips. The main obstacle to completing this list was to wade through
more than 750 issues of QST looking for the lists, and then to wade
through an average of 5000 callsigns in every annual list looking for ZS
callsigns. At my age, the process involves reading glasses, a bright light
and a magnifying glass. Fortunately, the painful project was eventually
completed during 2013.

With the exception of one year, during which the ARRL published no
lists, all callsigns have now been included. From 2004 to 2006, the ARRL
published no lists in QST or the DXCC Yearbook. The reason
was that the online listings had just been introduced. Unfortunately, while
it was now possible to follow the progress in real time, none of this history
has been preserved. I had to rely on the assistance of Bill Moore at DXCC to
help me get to this information. 2004 and 2006 have now been incorporated; I
hope to also have 2005 one day.

I try to keep the list as current as possible. Approximately once a month,
I check the DXCC listings on the ARRL Web site. When I see a new addition or
a change in endorsement level, I update this list. I also request dates and
certificate numbers from the relevant participants, with mixed success.

I'm hoping the list now includes all callsigns. However, if you know of
any DXCC certificates out there that I don't know about, or information about
certificates that are not fully recorded in these pages, whether your own
or someone else's, please let me know. As you will see, on the Mixed and
Phone lists there are many incomplete entries--dates, certificate numbers
and names are missing or subject to question. If you can contribute any
information, please let me know.

If you are an old timer and have confirmed many countries using paper QSL
cards, you can also apply on paper. The procedure is outlined in the
DXCC pages. You can have most of
your cards checked in this country through Tjerk Lammers ZS6P, the SARL's Awards
Manager. Liaise directly with him for further details on how to have your cards
inspected. As of 2012, a new on-line application process for paper QSLs has
been launched. Using this process is a lot cheaper and a little faster than
through the old paper-based system. This process still involves paper forms that
have to be sent to the USA, but you yourself do all the typing to enter the contacts
into the DXCC database. Theoretically, the room for error has been greatly reduced.
At the very least, the costs are much less, as you do not have to pay the ARRL to
do the data entry.

2017 started slowly, with no major DXpeditions to speak of. Perhaps the most interesting
development was the sudden increase in activity on 5 MHz, as many countries implemented
the recommendation to allocate the 5 MHz band to their amateurs. Many European countries
came up for the first time, and many dozens of Germans could be heard every day. Four South
Africans were regularly active. ZS6EZ and ZS4TX were occasionally working CW, while ZS6WN and
ZS2ACP were mostly active on JT65. There was definitely a lot more DX to be had on the
digital modes than on CW. South Africans continue to be hampered by our inability to transmit
on the new band, with few stations listening in our channel down below.

February has produced far more action. The first major splash was from ZC4A by 5B4AGN
et al. The day of Bob's arrival, the licence had not been issued, so he used ZC4ZM for just over
a day. He was working at high rates and was workable on several bands. ZC4A continued for a few
more days, mostly on CW. Your scribe was delighted to tick off the last two remaining bands
with ZC4 (3,5 and 7 MHz) after unsuccessfully pursuing confirmation of a few old contacts
for many years. The instant LotW confirmations didn't hurt, either.

E51DWC was OK1DWC showing up from South Cook again. He was very active, but was very
hard to work in southern Africa. XX9D made a great showing from Macau, using a location
on Coloane Island, somewhat outside the densely populated city. They were readily worked by
locals on many bands and all modes. VP6EU showed up on cue. Despite the difficult path,
they have had some success into southern Africa on several bands. Locals are keenly waiting for
them to appear on various bands and modes, especially on RTTY. As of February, the feeding
frenzy on 5 MHz has subsided. We're back to calling CQ for long periods with little
or no response, and the ZS regulars have mostly dissipated into the woodwork.

ZS6UT's 5 Band DXCC finally arrived in the mail in February. Ed became only the fourth
South African to achieve 9BDXCC, with 1,8 MHz in addition to the usual classic and WARC
bands. Also during February, ZS1LS finally applied for all the single-band awards that
he was eligible for. He already had 8BDXCC, but the new single-band awards place him in the
5-Band and WARC band Challenge tables. Allan has made amazing progress. From a clean slate in
2010, Allan has soared to the joint first place on Digital modes, second place on the WARC bands
and Top Six positions on four bands (18, 21, 25 and 28 MHz)! The most interesting aspect of his
progress has been his lavish use of digital weak-signal modes rather than the more traditional
CW and SSB. His strategy has certainly stood him in good stead, and may well be the way of the
future. A very unusual feature of Allan's DXCC scores is the total absence of any deleted entities.
The scores shown in these tables are equal to his current scores in all cases. Old timers appearing
in these lists have up to dozens of deleted entitities included in their totals. Allan has added
another feather to his cap: He becomes the first South African to break 300 on each of the three
modes. Barry Murrell ZS2EZ came very close, previously missing this milestone by only two credits
on Phone.

In March, Bernie van der Walt ZS4TX continued his relentless climb to the top on the
7 MHz band by working JG8NQJ/JD1 for a new one. Once the confirmation arrives, Bernie will
only need North Korea P5 to complete a full house. If you include his deleted countries, his
score will be at 346. This score remains the highest single-band DXCC score on any band by a South
African. Although Bernie's March DXCC submission does not yet include the JD1, he has become
the first South African to reach a cumulative score of 1600 on the five classic bands, for an
average of 320 per band.

Ranking of All-Time High South African Scores

Note: The table above contains only stations currently listed
in the ARRL's official list. The table below contains the all-time high
scores. Several of the members were licenced just after WW-II, and worked
dozens of countries that were subsequently deleted. Their scores are
unattainable to someone entering the race now, as those countries are
no longer available to be worked. However, to reflect the persistent
achievement by old timers over many decades, the table below shows
the all-time high achievements in each category.

Note: The term "inactive" means that the station is no
longer listed by ARRL. The reason is generally that no cards
have been submitted since the introduction of the computer system
in the Nineties. In some cases, stations were removed when the
operators died.

WA3IKK is now K3WC. W4QCW is now W4DR. ZS6BCR is now ZS6EZ. W1BB, ZS2X, ZS5LB
and ZS6FU are deceased.

Key: "Start date" is the first date from which applications were
accepted. "Contacts from" means the first date from which contacts were
valid for this award. "First certificate" means the first certificate
issued, by date and callsign. "First ZS" is the corresponding information
for the first South African winner. "Number" is the certificate number
obtained by the first ZS (for those DXCCs with serial numbers). "Months"
is the delay between the first certificate and the first South African
certificate in months. The figure for 144 MHz represents the
slowest uptake by South Africans. The first 430 MHz DXCC was issued in 2008,
and no South African has claimed that certificate. The compiler does not know
the leading scores on this band, but it does not look like there is likely to
be an applicant in the immediate future.

Note regarding CW DXCC start date: For most DXCC certificates,
contacts made since 1945-11-15 count. This date represents the resumption
of activities in the USA after the Second World War. At this time, most
DX was worked on CW, so no special DXCC was available for this mode.
There were only Phone and Mixed certificates. When CW DXCC was introduced
in 1975, the decision was made to only count contacts made after the start
date, forcing everyone to start with a clean slate. 5BDXCC was handled
similarly, but contacts before the start date have subsequently been
accepted. However, many Old Timers worked numerous countries on CW before
the CW start date, and only received Mixed credit for those entities. As
a result, the leading CW scores are much lower than the leading Phone
and Mixed scores. On Mixed, individuals have claimed as many as 57 deleted
entities. On Phone, the corresponding number is around 54. For CW, it is
only 19.

Personal Notes

1. The late "Van" van der Watt ZS6LW became the first
South African ever to have achieved the Top of the Honour Roll
(i.e. worked all current countries). Van was the top South African
on the DXCC-HR from at least 1975 to 1997 (1998 on Phone). He first
reached the Top of the HR in 1980 (both Mixed and Phone) and
retained that position on and off until 1994. The second South
African only reached this milestone during 2002. Van died in mid-2000.
As of 2001, he remained the highest-scoring South African on the official
DXCC list, and remained on the Honour Roll. However, with the ongoing
addition of new countries, Bushy Roode ZS6YQ surpassed Van's total number
of countries worked during 2002. Van's callsign finally dropped off the
Honour Roll in 2003, when the addition of Ducie Island VP6 left him
with 10 countries unworked.

2. ZS5MQ was listed in 1975 with 152 countries. However, his
certificate is dated 1976.

3. ZS2SG has a 125 endorsement sticker. However, his highest endorsement
level listed in QST is 110.